On April 26, local time, Russian President Vladimir Putin met with visiting UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres at the Kremlin. The two sides exchanged views on the conflict between Russia and Ukraine and humanitarian issues.
Putin said that Russia, as a founding member of the United Nations and one of the permanent members of the UN Security Council, has always and will continue to support this world organization.
The Russian side believes that the main rules of the international community are the UN Charter and other documents of the organization, not documents concocted by some countries for their own interests.
Russia is surprised by the exclusive practices or claims of exclusive rights of some countries in international affairs, because the UN Charter stipulates that all participants in the international community are equal regardless of their size, strength and geographical location.
Putin introduced the situation and motivation of Russia's special military operation in Ukraine.
He said that the negotiations between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul made a "major breakthrough", but since then with the "Buca incident", the Ukrainian side's position on further solutions has undergone "fundamental changes", while the Russian army and " The Bucca incident" has nothing to do with it.
Putin said that Ukraine proposed to immediately discuss the territorial issues of Crimea and Donbas at the level of the two heads of state, but these issues cannot be resolved without preliminary discussions at other levels.
He stressed that Russia does not agree to sign a security agreement without addressing these issues.
He also said that despite the ongoing military operations, Russia still hopes to reach an agreement through diplomatic channels.
"We are negotiating and we will not refuse to negotiate."
Guterres said he understood Russia's claims on the Ukraine issue and in the field of European and global security, but they "need to be resolved in accordance with the various tools proposed in the UN Charter" and that "violating the territorial integrity of other countries is completely inconsistent with the" of the Charter of the United Nations".
Guterres said the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross were ready to guarantee the evacuation of civilians from Mariupol in a direction of their own choosing.
Together with the International Committee of the Red Cross, the United Nations will use all resources and cooperate with the Russian and Ukrainian authorities to facilitate the evacuation of the population.
He reiterated the proposal to establish a tripartite contact group involving the United Nations, Russia and Ukraine to address humanitarian issues in Ukraine, in order to ensure that humanitarian corridors have real effects to evacuate civilians and deliver necessary aid.
In a one-on-one meeting, Guterres reiterated the UN's position on Ukraine, where the two sides discussed humanitarian aid and recovery from the conflict, UN Secretary-General's spokesman Djarric said in a statement after the meeting. Proposals to evacuate civilians from the region, especially in relation to the situation in Mariupol.
Putin agreed in principle to the participation of the United Nations and the ICRC in the evacuation of civilians from the Azov steel plant in Mariupol.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the Russian Ministry of Defense will have further discussions on this.
(produced by Le Xiaomin)
Responsible editor: [Yu Xiao]